


Like Bloodstained Saints

by Cupcakemolotov



Series: come alive [52]
Category: The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate universe - Mafia, Canonical Character Death, Character Death, Dark Caroline Forbes/Klaus Mikaelson, Did I Mention Murder, F/M, Happy Ending, Implied/Referenced Torture, Light Angst, Mafia families, Murder, Not Hayley Friendly, Not Tyler Lockwood Friendly, Shaky Morals, Tyler Lockwood Bashing, Unhealthy Relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-12
Updated: 2019-04-12
Packaged: 2020-01-11 21:45:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,701
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18432707
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cupcakemolotov/pseuds/Cupcakemolotov
Summary: Killing her husband would once have seemed to be an impossibility. But sitting in a church with bloody skirts and hands, Caroline learns that many things are not what they’d seemed.





	Like Bloodstained Saints

**Author's Note:**

> HAPPY SUPER LATE BIRTHDAY PAULA! Thank you for always making such beautiful things and being such a gem. I don't why you always end up with the mafia plots, but well, here you go. SURPRISE. I tried to do something that was a little angsty (since you seem to like it…) but that didn't make it far, surprising no one. I have no idea what decade this is supposed to be set in, but it is definitely not set in a more modern era. Apologies that I didn't manage smut. 
> 
> A really big thanks to Kelly for her attempts to wrangle this plot into something reasonable. She's also the reason there are fewer grammatical mistakes than usual. Anything that was missed was totally my doing.

* * *

The church was quiet in the pre-dawn hours, the only light flickering from the candles she'd lit upon her arrival. Even the moon hid, the great stained glass windows dark. Caroline wasn't sure what she'd hoped to find on a night like this. There would be no sanctuary, no offer of safety a priest could make her that she would be interested in.

Her husband had been murdered, and she'd pulled the trigger.

She wondered how much of that night would show on her clothing once dawn crept along the skyline. The hemline of her skirt was dark and slick, her bodice dotted with the same stains from the gunshot that had taken Tyler's life. Her usually perfect hair lay haphazardly about her shoulders, tangled from the blistering winds that still whistled through Chicago even as spring fought to make an appearance.

She felt free for the first time in a decade.

Her hands were trembling.

Staring down at her carefully manicured nails and pale skin, she tried to see if there was visible change, but they were the same hands she had all her life. Familiar and unfamiliar in the moment and she wondered if she was in shock. If it wasn't for the shaking in her bones, she could have thought herself unaffected by her foray into murder. But she wasn't certain if the adrenaline and breathless rush was from watching her husband die at her feet or the sudden, achingly wonderful realization that she was free.

Perhaps she was her mother's daughter after all.

That thought brought a faint smile to her face, and she realized she didn't want absolution for tonight sins. Though she'd once loved Tyler, it had been the boy she had loved, the one who had offered her shy smiles and fumbling kisses, his boyish heart open on his face. She remembered the relief of finding a friend in her father's choice for her, and the excitement of Chicago.

How young they'd been those early days.

She might have mourned that boy but she'd already spent years mourning him, staring down at the facade of the man Tyler had become: harder, angrier, and with whatever love they'd originally found together withered away into ash. It had been a steady degradation of who they'd been, and the young man who'd cried in her arms after his first murder had disappeared a little more each day. The girl who'd loved and wanted so fiercely had wilted bit by bit until all that had remained of their marriage had been endless resentment and the chill of her bed-sheets.

That too, she thought, marked her as her mother's daughter. Holding on to a thing long after she should have let go. Perhaps she'd have forgiven Tyler that distance one day. She'd would have forgiven him many things, after all, if he only hadn't left her behind. Tyler had chosen to push her away, he continued to had ignore her open hands, and he'd locked her in the cage of her marriage.

And all the while, he'd found solace in another's bed.

Studying the flickering flame of the candle, she accepted her lack of guilt. Instead, she sat dry eyed and stubborn, determined to enjoy this brief moment of victory. She'd known that she'd leave only ruin in her wake when she'd lifted Tyler's pistol, and again, as she'd watched him die at her feet. What kind of strange relief was it, she wondered, to be freed from the chains of familial expectation. For the first time since her mother's death, she was herself. Perhaps bloodied and tired, but it had been Caroline who had pulled that trigger, not Lockwood's wife.

She was glad of it.

Her lips curved briefly at the thought of her in-laws reactions when they learned of her betrayal. Mason and Carol would not forgive that night's work. Tyler had been their legacy, their perfect tool for future conquests, and she'd destroyed it with a single, well-placed bullet.

It'd been worth it, to reclaim herself, for all that Mason's men would soon hunt her in the streets like a dog. Alaric and Stefan, Matt and Damon. Caroline had no doubt they'd come to this church eventually, would look for her in the shadows of the pews. Damon, she thought with a small sigh, would take great pleasure in her death.

And still, she sat on her little wooden bench and watched the fire of the candle flicker in the shadows. She did not want to die. But if she must, it was better to die Caroline than a caricature of herself, forced into a role she hated. But even that knowledge did not stop her looking for an option, an angle. Leaving the city would be an impossibility. Her face was too well known on the streets, and even if she'd slipped into a different territory, where would she go? She had no family, no money, no connections.

Except, perhaps…

Caroline pushed the thought aside. She would not run and she would not beg. It was better to face this fate of her choosing than to let that last crumb of happiness she'd held on to disappear. She'd made her choice and she would face the consequences. She just wished she'd had a little more time to work through that nights realizations before being interrupted. But the sound of the door behind her creaking open told her that her time was up.

So soon. They'd found her so soon.

The door shut softly, the old, heavy wood creaking back into place and behind her the footsteps were measured, unhurried. Her eyes slid shut. For all of her brave thoughts, she couldn't quite force herself to look. After several long moments, there was a soft rustling but the sounds she expected never came. There was no steel against a leather sheath, the familiarity of a gun being readied absent from the walls of the church.

Just the scrape of a match.

Opening her eyes, her gaze swung to the man standing in the candlelight and her calm acceptance shattered in her throat. There was only one man with tumbled curls who left her heart so erratic in her chest, whose lean form left her hands trembling with the curiosity of how he would feel beneath her palms. Licking dry lips, fingers curling tightly together, she watched him silently, groping mentally for words.

_Why had he come? How had he known?_

This wasn't his territory, for all that he'd been expanding it with a meticulous brutality that occasionally exploded without warning. An artist's temperament, she'd once mocked him with champagne in hand, and Klaus had merely offered her a smile bracketed by both dimples, eyes amused as he'd offered her the bottle between them.

_Passion has its uses, don't you think, sweetheart?_

The soft heat in his eyes had been as dangerous as anything else he'd offered her, and she couldn't even remember what she'd deflected his charm with. But she had deflected, as she'd done at every social event where Tyler had abandoned her to find solace elsewhere.

She'd been trapped between two tectonic plates, her marriage and their business, both threatening to crush her. For a while, she'd hated them both. Klaus had made it clear that he considered Tyler's treatment of her to be ungentlemanly, and attempted to woo her to his side with soft words and charming smiles. Tyler had continued to try to leverage her acquaintance and Klaus' preferential treatment as an opportunity to gain info.

Particularly as the Lockwoods had started to lo power, their clenched fist on around the city growing shakier every day. The social events Carol had shipped her off to to show a pretty face had become exhausting, the crush of people who wanted her family to fall crowding in on all sides. And somehow, Klaus would always arrive to tuck her hand against his arm and steer her through the crowds just as she'd started to feel the strain of being near so many dangerous men without a shield.

_Why bother? She'd demanded one night not so long ago. You know I won't help you._

God, the look behind his eyes as she'd bitten out those words, her teeth clenched, shoulders drawn tight. Klaus had held the most power in the city by then, his influence spreading from the docks to the Mayor's office. Rumor even said he had a brother who worked as a Fed. He could have swept her out of that room, tossed her into the river, and no one would have said a word. But his eyes had told her that where he wanted her had nothing to do with the cold of the river, and everything to do with his bed.

_You've long since stopped being strictly about business, Caroline. Is it so hard to believe that I enjoy you?_

That she'd found she wanted to believe him had alarmed her. Klaus might have answered her endless questions with patience, teased her with stories of places she'd only dreamed of visiting, but she'd known from the start she was a weapon against her family. That she'd started to want more, that she'd let herself be charmed, had been a dangerous indulgence.

Klaus might have chosen to keep her company while Tyler dailied with his mistress, but for all his words, whatever was between them had never been personal. It'd been that realization that had steeled her spine against the pit in her stomach, and had given her the gumption to hold his burning gaze and not flinch.

_What you feel doesn't matter. I've chosen my side in this war, Klaus. I will not betray them for you._

_And what about how you feel, Caroline?_

It was those words that had followed her for weeks, that she thought of now as she studied the curve of his nape as he sat with his head bent in the candlelight. Did he know how that question would nag at her? Had he asked her carelessly or with intent to unnerve her? She didn't know, but watching him eased some of the tension of her impending death. Klaus, she thought, would not let her suffer. And as long as he sat with her in this church, she was outside her family's reach.

It gave her just a little more time.

"Come to keep me company one last time as my family hunts me?" Her voice was soft in the dark, and she watched his shoulders lift as he took a careful breath.

"Do you think so poorly of me, Caroline, that I'd abandon you to them?"

His voice was as quiet as hers, and when his head turned, she found herself unable to read his eyes. Caroline lifted her shoulder in a half-hearted shrug. There was no point in pretending he didn't know what had transpired.

"How did you find me so quickly?"

"I've had someone watching Hayley's apartment since it had became clear that Tyler was sharing her bed," Klaus murmured. "And a murder in that part of the city does not stay quiet for long. Once word spread among my men that we were looking for you, it didn't take long for a report of a lovely blonde seeking solace at this church to reach me. I admit, I did not expect find you quite so composed."

Her stomach jolted. "But…" her words hesitated and she glanced around the church. She'd known that she'd have likely been seen, that word would make its way through the streets. But she just hadn't thought that information would go to Klaus. Throat going dry, she shook her head. "This street is ours."

A smile played across his lips that heated her cheeks. "I've always admired that about you, Caroline. You're not just a pretty face."

Her eyes narrowed. "When did you take this part of the city, Klaus? Two weeks ago it belonged to us."

Klaus' head tipped to the side. "Chicago will be mine entirely in a matter of weeks."

Caroline made an impatient noise. "Of course it will. Once you gained control of the docks, you cut off the main source of income for over a third of the families here. It was only a matter of time before deals were struck or you started culling the competition. I want to know when you started to cut into our territory, Klaus."

Klaus laughed softly, something so very indulgent in the sound. "You were wasted as a showpiece, love. You should have ruled."

"That is no longer a concern, is it?" At least in this, there would be no judgement from him. "I killed Tyler; they won't welcome me back."

Klaus straightened and moved closer, crouching down next to her. Her teeth sank briefly into her lip as he reached for her fingers, the heat of him shocking against her chilled skin. He cupped her palm carefully between both of his, and the unexpected intimacy of it brought a flush to her cheeks. She'd never have thought the violence of him capable of such gentleness.

"I had assumed," he murmured, thumb brushing along her palm. His words were quiet, but something about his tone, his gaze, kept them from being soft. "I'm told it was a excellent shot. He would have died within minutes, but it would have exceedingly painful."

Caroline's brows tucked together at what might have been pride in his voice. Heat bloomed in her cheeks even as she wondered how he'd learned that information so soon? "Surely someone didn't send for a surgeon. He was quite dead when I left."

There was a curl of his mouth she could barely see with his back to the light at the offhand admittance that she'd stayed and watched him die. "Hayley's maid is mine. As is the doorman for her building. But it was your Enzo who had been watching Tyler's place for the last week or so. We've been expecting them to respond to the pressure we'd been applying soon. He noted your arrival, and when he heard the commotion…"

His jaw tightened for a moment and it occurred to her that Enzo had thought he was running in to find her murdered instead. And that Klaus had worried about her, as he waited for word of her whereabouts.

It shook her.

Enzo belonged to Klaus, regardless of Klaus earlier words. Though often did she find him in her shadow. A little reminder, she'd always thought, of just how far Klaus' reach could extend. A comfortable threat, as he openly spied in her family.

Now... she wasn't so sure.

When Klaus continued, his voice was steady. "Enzo didn't see you leave. Once he moved to investigate and realized you were missing, he contained the scene. Then he sent word to me."

"Contained the scene. What does that mean?" Caroline asked slowly, brain whirling. There hadn't been even a hint of a rumor that Klaus had bought his way into the Chicago police, though it had been expected. Everyone had a detective or two whose pockets were lined with bribes. But to be able to so easily hijack a murder scene...

Klaus' gaze held hers, and there was something bitingly possessive in his eyes. "Hayley is being… detained. No one else knows you pulled the trigger. I can make tonight's murder disappear, if you wish."

Her fingers curled against his, nails pressing into his skin. Her inhale was ragged in her throat. "Why would you do that? You said it would be weeks yet before you gained control. Claiming the death as your doing, when Tyler was bedding his mistress, it would be seen as cowardly. You'd lose face."

"Did you plan to return to the Lockwoods?"

Caroline laughed bitterly at his words, eyes stinging for the first time since she'd pulled the trigger. She'd gone to Tyler that night not to kill him, but for help. "The only fate awaiting me there is my death."

"That would be quite the mistake on their part."

Something about his tone, the shift of his weight, set off butterflies in her stomach. Wishing for the first time that she'd lit more candles, she leaned over to peer at him, squinting at the familiar lines of face. His breath was warm against her skin and she frowned.

"You're angry."

"You have denied me at every turn," Klaus said, voice low and dark. "You listened to everything I offered you, watched as I took apart my competition one piece at a time, and understood what that meant for you, for your future. Yet not once did you waver in your loyalty to a family that did not deserve you."

Caroline shook her head. "Tyler was my husband."

Her breath hitched as he brought her fingers to the heat of his mouth, lips grazing the tips of her fingers. "And you chose to kill him."

Gaze narrowing, she didn't flinch from the darkness of his own. "I did not kill him for you."

"No," he agreed, voice sure. "You killed him for you."

She hated that he read her so easily and that for the second time that night she found herself fighting tears. Swallowing harshly, she shook her head. "How do you know that?"

He placed the softest of kisses against the curve of her thumb as if he could see her internal struggle. "You would not have murdered him for anything less. What happened, Caroline?"

She laughed bitterly at the question, finally looking away from him. "Does it matter?"

"Of course it does." Her gaze returned to his, and she tried to find his eyes in the shadows. "You are not a fickle creature."

Caroline's mouth curved into a parody of a smile. She still did not regret choosing to kill her husband, but how did she explain to Klaus the motivations as she faced him down in Hayley's home? The truth that sat heavy and old in her chest, a truth she had ignored for far to long. Until a single question had reverberated in her mind for weeks, reminding her that she had choices too.

"Am I not? He did not threaten me. Not directly, at least."

"Tyler was a fool," Klaus said harshly. "He is lucky that you chose to end his life."

She shook her head. "Was he? I think perhaps Hayley would have a different opinion on such matters. Did you know they were trying to have a child?"

The fingers against hers tightened for half a heartbeat. "Is that something you wanted?"

"Tyler's child?" Her voice was full of scorn. "That would have required Tyler to share my bed, which I have had no interest in allowing. No, my concerns were not that Tyler wished for a son, but that he let his mother know of such a desire and how he thought to reach his goal. Carol has dreams of a dynasty, you see. It was why she and my father arranged our marriage. She was very particular about the breeding stock of her grandchild. And Tyler threatened that with his idiocy. His mother would never allow such a breach of appearance. She would eventually remove either Hayley or myself from the picture."

Klaus' head shifted to the side, his voice neutral when he spoke. "You went to warn them."

Her teeth sank briefly into her lip at how easily he read such a result from her actions. How close had she let Klaus without realizing it? Swallowing her growing unease, she finally nodded. "I went to warn him. To ask for a divorce. If he was going to choose a family with his mistress, no good could come from our continued nuptials."

And Tyler had laughed at her as she'd tried to reason with him. He did not believe Carol capable of making such a terrible choice, but Caroline knew her in-laws. She knew what drove Carol's particular brand of madness, what made up the worst of Mason's rage. When Tyler had made it clear that it was Hayley he would side with should his mother force a choice, she had seen her future closing in on her sharply. Carol would not have taken the shame of a divorce gracefully, but she might have swallowed it had Tyler also pushed for one. Without his support, the cage of her marriage would turn into the plain box of a casket, and she would not allow that.

In the end, it hadn't been Hayley's biting words and smug smile or Tyler's indifference that had pushed her into taking control of her life. She'd stood in that apartment and seen the culmination of her life and hated it. She was not weak. She was not timid. She had fought for her marriage and failed, and it was a failure that would taste like ash for years to come.

But she was her mother's daughter, and though she'd forgotten that briefly, she remembered it now. She would not forget those lessons a second time. Tyler had never seen her as a threat, neutered as she'd been by the weight of her father's expectations. Her in-laws has forgotten where she had come from, the family she had once been apart of before her mother's death and her father's failures. But the past didn't remained buried forever and Tyler had learned that tonight.

It had been her mother who taught her to shoot.

"I take it Tyler did not take the news gladly," Klaus murmured, breaking into her thoughts. "Tell me, love. Why not come to me? Why not ask for help? Did you imagine I would have left you to such a fate?"

Caroline gave an unladylike snort. "I do not ask my enemies to clean up my messes, Klaus."

"Is that what you think we are?" He asked, voice dangerously soft. "Enemies? After all this time, with my regard for you so clearly on display?"

She tugged her hand away, suddenly angry. What regard could he possibly speak of? "All those evenings spent in each other's company was business. Do not pretend otherwise."

A slashing look, the set of his mouth hard. "If only. It would have my made my life far less complicated if you were so easily set aside as business. I assure you, I attempted it. And I failed."

"Enjoyment is not care, Klaus." She denied, throwing his words from those weeks ago back at him. "You enjoy a dog, a game of cards. A woman needs more than that."

His gaze narrowed. "That is what you took from our conversations?"

"What should I have taken from them?" Caroline demanded. "The Lockwoods had not moved against you; at least not overtly. Others have been much bolder with their plots. Yet, I've dealt with your spies and your growing hatred of my husband, your thinly veiled promises of our fall for years. What could I possibly otherwise have gleaned from our conversations when your actions spoke so much louder?"

"It is true I find your previous husband distasteful, and I have indeed plotted his downfall. But in the interim, I believe I have been quite considerate. Other than the share the Lockwoods once had at my docks, I've been rather merciful in how I've dealt with your family's careful, if futile, machinations."

Her fingers curled into fists. "How so? Where should I have seen this fanciful mercy you speak of?"

"Until tonight, they all still lived with fortune and health intact, did they not?"

"How is that mercy?" She snapped. "We both know if you could have moved against them sooner, you would have. As a family, we were not insignificant. Our territory was not so vulnerable you simply walked in and took it."

A shift of his weight as Klaus rose and ran his roughly fingers through his curls. "The biggest mistake Carol Lockwood ever made was deciding to ignore your clever mind, love. As for the rest, you are somewhat correct. To take your territory without razing your infrastructure into the ground, it would have indeed have taken work. Months, perhaps years. I could have managed it, if I cared at all for what your family had built."

Caroline shook her head. "Then why send spies at all?"

His laugh was harsh in his throat. "Your Lockwood's temper was a concern, as was Mason's. Carol would poison you before allowing a hint of betrayal stand in her house. Enzo was not a spy, Caroline, but a warning that I would take your death personally. One they were smart enough to take seriously."

Caroline staggered to her feet, pushing at his hands when he tried to steady her. "Enzo was supposed to _protect me_?"

"Yes."

Her mouth opened and closed wordlessly at the charge of that one word. Yes. When she finally found her voice, it was strangled. "But he's been tailing me for years."

Klaus lifted a brow, the shift of his head briefly illuminating the planes of his face, the glittering of his eyes. "So he has."

"That makes no sense," she finally managed, struggling to grip some form of composure. That he would do such a thing was nearly incomprehensible. "I was married to your competition. Before you started chipping away at our territory, we controlled the largest chunk of the city. To become emotionally involved with me would be…"

Her words died as the angle of his jaw sent a jolt through her. The shadows hid the darkness of his gaze, but she could feel his eyes on her skin as hotly as a touch. "Foolish. Asinine. Of utmost stupidity. I assure you, my family has cast any number of unflattering opinions at my feet since it became clear I was more concerned with your well being than the threat that Mason Lockwood posed to my plans. It's been quite the aggravating tightrope to walk these past few years, sweetheart. But what else could I have done? Short of murdering your entire family in their beds, I had no choice but to wait."

Caroline stared at him, lips parted, utterly bewildered. When she remained silent, he took a careful step closer. His shoulders were tense, jaw tight as he visibly struggled to rein in his growing agitation.

"I've thought of murdering your family many, many times, Caroline. It would have greatly simplified my life. But as long as you remained stubbornly loyal, I knew such a move would only push you away. And so I dared not allow the truth of my motivations to fully show, even though I'm certain that others have guessed at them. I am not generally given to subtlety."

"What motivations? You cannot suggest that you wished to kill them entirely on my behalf," she said flatly. "No one takes as much of the city as you and attempts to do it bloodlessly."

The curve of his smile softened his face. "Did I intend to kill them? Certainly. Mason and Carol currently exist solely on borrowed time that will be coming to an end shortly. No, Caroline. It is far more honest to say I held my hand for as long as I dared, for you. That is the mercy I gave."

"Why?" Caroline whispered, throat tight. "What could you possibly hoped to gain?"

"You," he said simply. "I want you."

The rough exasperation in his voice, the curl of his fingers as he clearly refrained from reaching for her had her fingers clutching tightly on the wooden pew. "You don't know me."

Klaus made a rough noise low in this throat and reached for her wrists and tugged her away from the pew, though his grip was gentle. Spluttering, she let him drag her into the light of the candles. Here she could see the shadow of his stubble, the brilliance of his eyes as he studied her face with an intensity that felt devouring. She stared back in turn, jaw set at a stubborn angle as she refused to flinch from him.

"I know you," he argued back, voice low and rough. "I have spent years looking to find ways to slide as deeply beneath your skin as you have mine. I've taken in every hint of the woman beneath the pretty amor and false smiles, and I know what lurks beneath."

"Arguments over painting," Caroline said fiercely, refusing to acknowledge the pounding of her pulse. The flush in her cheeks. "Your stupid taste in music. Frivolous things like how we take each other's drinks. Those are small, unimportant things. You cannot have based the entirety of your organization on such."

He slid his fingers up her wrists and caught her fingers. In the candlelight, there was no hiding the heat of his gaze as his lips brushed her knuckles. "How many men does it take to hold the docks, Caroline."

She frowned at him. "What?"

"How many men?" He repeated, his head canting to the side. "How much territory did I hold in this city a year ago, six months? What amount do you think I'm collecting from the storefronts as protection money? How many guns do I have on hand at any given time?"

"Why ask me this?" Caroline demanded. "What does this have to do with anything else?"

"Because I know you can answer them." His smile was a wicked thing full of dimples and the chaos he so easily left in his wake. "You need to understand that I am not Lockwood, to underestimate you because you're lovely. You are a fierce creature, Caroline. Made up of sharp edges and grasping fingers, and I want all of you for myself. But to have you, I could not entrap you, and it was maddening. I considered it early in our acquaintance of course. It would have been quite the coup to steal you from beneath Lockwood's nose, but every time you balked, every time you denied me with sharp words as he left to find a different bed, you dug a little deeper beneath my armor until having you was no longer a game, but a need."

Her breathing was ragged in her throat. This was no pretty falsehood. There was no gain, no edge that she could give him tonight that murdering Tyler had not already granted. And yet still, he hunted her with his words and hungry eyes.

"What you are suggesting…" words died in her throat and she shook her head.

Klaus' gaze dragged down her face. "That I would have killed Tyler with joy, that I will make Carol and Mason regret their choices? That cannot be so surprising, love. Waiting for you to realize, to understand what I offered, that has been the true trial. I want you to choose me. And Caroline, I do not share what is mine."

"What," she started and then paused, swallowing at the crack in her voice. "What would you do if I decide not to chose you?"

If she had not killed Tyler, for all his pretty words, would Klaus have eventually killed her as well?

"What will I do? Once the remaining Lockwoods are dealt with there will be an unfortunate period of time where you'll need to be out of the view of the city, I'm afraid. I cannot allow a hint of weakness shown just yet, and your survival without proof of loyalty would be considered a weakness. Though I assure you that your comfort would be well attended to. But once the city settled under my hand, you would be free to leave. I have no wish to cage you."

"House arrest," she murmured, still reeling. He would wrap her in luxury and safety, and bloody the city. Although she had no doubt it would be no a simple thing, that Klaus would use her forced stay to his every advantage. Tugging her hands free of his grip, she watched the lines of his face carefully, needing to see.

"A temporary measure at most," his agreed, his voice suspiciously mild as he released her. "Though if you must understand. If you choose that route, I cannot allow you to stay in Chicago afterwards. My enemies would see you as exploitable; a weak point where pressured could be applied."

"But you would let me go," Caroline pressed. "You would let me leave."

To choose her own home.

His jaw visibly clenched. "If I must."

Her fingers pressed against her mouth in a failed attempt to hide the beginnings of a small smile. The aggravation in that bitten off sentence spoke louder than anything he'd done that night. Klaus wanted her. Klaus would let her go.

Did she want to leave?

She would not go back to the cage of her old life. She wanted more. Straightening her spine, she took a deep breath. "And what would you want as a sign of loyalty if I choose not to leave?"

His head tipped to the side, something hot and greedy, a little sly, flickering through his gaze. "Marriage would be quite the statement."

She snorted before she could stop herself. "How romantic. I just murdered one husband, Klaus, why would I want another one?"

"Do you want romance, Caroline?"

Something about the softness of that question, the hint of gravel in his voice, kept her from making light of it. Standing in the candlelight in the church with her bloody clothes and his perfect suit suddenly struck her as surreal. Lifting her chin she searched for a event a hint derision in his gaze, but only found that dangerous, singular focus.

"Yes. I want romance. Big and little gestures. Flowers and dinners. I want to be able to come home and discuss art and music and the absurdity of women's fashion alongside the plotting and the scheming to get what I want from this city. I want a partnership." She held his gaze, needed him to understand that she meant it. "I won't settle for less than that ever again."

Klaus stepped closer, hand lifting to curve along her jaw as his thumb stroked along her bottom lip. They stared at each other for a long, intense moment before the edges of his mouth curled. "Good. You deserve nothing less. And while I cannot offer to sweep you off your feet just yet, I can perhaps make more intriguing offer."

She brought her fingers up to curl around his wrist, to feel the strength of muscle and bone beneath her palm. "Oh?"

"Come with me to the Lockwoods," Klaus offered with a glint in his eyes. "My men have been gathering for the past hour, and we are ready to move. Mason and Carol will not live past dawn, though it will take me a week or more to finish dismantling their little organization."

She wondered what Klaus would think, when he realized how little gore and torture bothered her. She had inherited her mother's iron stomach, not her father's weak one. It had been her mother who had taught her how to kill a man, who had taught her the ins and outs of an organization so they could be taken apart.

Her mother, she knew, would have liked Klaus. She'd probably have tried to kill him, but she'd have liked him. Her teeth scraped against her lip for a moment at that thought, and his gaze dipped to follow the motion. She straightened her shoulders to hide the shiver, but with his hands still on her skin, she was certain her felt it. "Is that what you need from me to show the city I won't turn against you?"

"Is that what you are offering me?" Klaus murmured. "Your loyalty? Because I will accept nothing less."

Her fingers tightened on his wrist as she considered the bloody ripples such a move would leave behind. To give Klaus her allegiance here would mean so many things. Outside of what could be a wonderful, if probably bloody partnership, she'd wanted him when he was the enemy. How much of her heart would he take once they were on the same side?

Studying his face, Caroline realized she should wonder how much of her heart he'd already taken without her permission. Klaus, she knew, would never settle for less than all of her. He would push and demand and wheedle and probably be delighted if she did the same. Being with Klaus would be nothing like being with Tyler, and heat bloomed low in her belly at the thought.

"Yes," she said finally. His eyes flared hotly with triumph, but she brought her free hand to press against his lips, her eyes serious. "But the moment you try to cage me, I'll shoot you too."

Laughter brightened his gaze, dimples peeking behind the curve of her fingers. He caught her hand, pressed a kiss into the curve of her palm. "I'd expect nothing less."

"Well then, what's a little more blood on this dress?" She drawled as she swayed a touch closer to the heat of him. His hands slipped from her face and wrist to cup her hips. To pull her closer still. "I vote Damon suffers, though. He's an ass."

"I'm sure between us we can manage a torture or two that will meet your exacting standards," Klaus murmured, gaze dropping to trace the curve of her smile. "Enzo, I'm sure, would enjoy it."

There was so much more to discuss. How many men did he plan on bringing with them, did he know about the stash of weapons in the basement? Where did he expect her to live, where did she want to live once they'd destroyed the Lockwoods. What was being done about Tyler's body? Just how did he see her slotting into his organization because she would be no ones minion ever again. She wanted to rule.

But those discussions could wait. They had murders to plan, power to take, but before even that, she wanted to indulge the want that had been digging into her bones for years. She wanted just a small taste of what he was offering, to give her something to think about as she considered all her options. Because now that she could choose, she thought that Klaus might be that choice. 

Rising up on her toes, Caroline closed the distance between them and pressed her mouth against his. Her fingers slid into the soft strands at his nape as she pulled him closer, and he sank into her kiss with a rumble that tightened her nipples as he pulled her flush against him. The kiss was hot and greedy in all the best ways, and when she pulled back with a sharp inhale, her lips wet and swollen, the heat in his gaze was scorching.

As much as she wanted to lean back into him, to chase the velvet of his tongue with her own, she forced herself to lean back and ignore the red of his tempting mouth. Smiling despite the burn of arousal at the flex of his hands on her waist, she tipped her head towards the door. "We have a city to conquer."

A flash of teeth, and he released her. Offering her his arm, he ran his tongue across lips, as if chasing her taste. "When this is done, will you come home with me?"

"Yes," she said as she accepted his arm. It would be safe to stay there for the night. It would give her time to plan. "But I will have my own room."

"If you want."

Caroline shook her head, smile curling her lips as they moved towards the door at the hint of challenge in his voice. "If you want me in your bed, I'll need more than pretty words, Klaus."

He reached for the handle of the door, and paused to look at her. Brow arching, he pulled the door open smoothly, and she found that the men waiting in the shadows numbered in dozens. Adrenaline was a punch in her system, and her smile grew to match his. "I think you'll find I'm quite prepared to lay the world at your feet, sweetheart."

Stepping into the cool night air, his arm warm against hers, she believed him.

And she couldn't wait.


End file.
